Originally downloaded March 26, 2007. I can't remember if I ever published my exhaustive comparison of all the Mac OS X tools that do this, or something similar (like running Quartz animations), but I know it doesn't include this freebie, which was just developed this month! Definitely worth a try... The other two freewares that do this, as I recall, are Backlight and the widget called Desksaver Plus. A couple of other great free ones do Quartz compositions.

Update 1/5/08. Yes! Wallsaver started out a year ago as many promising software projects do... a little too buggy for regular use. But now, with the many updates made in the meantime, it's perfect for users who'd like to enjoy their screensavers and slideshows on the desktop rather than walking away just as they're starting. With Leopard, the joys are multiplied, since you can now run slideshows of any iPhoto album as a matter of routine, without any preparation in iPhoto. And Wallsaver can capture those as well as any other movies you happen to have ready for full-screen viewing as a screensaver. Apple should simply build this functionality into the OS... but until they do, Wallsaver is about the most lightweight (it's written in AppleScript), free option out there. The developer has added Sparkle to the software, so staying up with the latest version is a breeze and requires virtually no action on your part.

Version as tested: 1.3.6.

Originally downloaded March 28, 2007. OK, so it hasn't got much of an icon, and it's appeal is admittedly quite limited. But if you are brave enough and curious enough to use this freeware to peek inside your files outside of their native application, I suspect PeekIt will prove a worthy draw.

Update 10/11/07. I actually made this decision a few months ago, but I'm running behind in posting stuff. Peekit is a great tool for taking a look inside binary files, especially those that aren't mach-o executables. It's relatively easy to extract or modify text in such files. I used this to figure out how to modify FastOrSlow's icon to be white instead of black for Crystal Clear. Horrible icon, but hey, not everyone's an artist. It's just that usually they aren't Mac users. :-)

Version as tested: 2.5.4.

Originally downloaded 3/16/06. Apple's free plist editor is fine for most things, but the files remain a bit cryptic. I'm curious to see if this $25 shareware tool makes it any easier to figure out what preferences there are to be set, not just which ones have been set.

Update 10/17/06. The answer to my earlier question is "Yes," if what I meant was "which ones have been set" by the application's GUI Preferences settings. PlistEdit Pro is probably my favorite application for editing and working with application preferences, though it's taking second place in my toolbox to PrefSetter, since the latter is free and does most of what PlistEdit Pro does for $25. That's the price of freeware nowadays... possibly pissing a lot of talented developers off. But PrefSetter isn't the only decent freeware .plist editor out there. Not counting Apple's, which I mentioned before, there's also a good one from the developers of TinkerTool. It's a bit different, but still useful, tool called PrefEdit. So, as good as it is, PlistEdit Pro's price would have to be at least 50% lower to entice me to buy.

Update 3/30/07. Hold on a minute. I just discovered one or two things PlistEdit Pro can do that just might justify its somewhat high price tag, so I'm putting it back in the evaluation queue for awhile. The one function that was a requirement tonight is the abiliity to search and replace multiple values in a .plist file, something the free tools can't do. In confirming this, I discovered a host of other very cool features. Clearly, most people can make do fine with PrefSetter, but PlistEdit Pro may just be necessary once your needs get a little beyond the basics.

Update 7/8/07. I actually bought a license for this great software back in May, but I'm way behind in updating the software inventory on Mars. :-( As a devoted and very happy user of the free tool PrefSetter, I was delighted to find that PlistEdit Pro has some significant enhancements that I've found truly unique and useful.

I bought PlistEdit Pro after repeated occasions when this handy utility performed tasks that nothing else in my toolbox could touch, though I still think $25 is a bit steep for a plist editor. Nevertheless, PlistEdit Pro has so many powerful, pro-level features that it's a must-have for anyone who needs or wants to poke around in their application's plist files. Here's just one example of PlistEdit Pro's killer features: You can search not only across your system for plists by filename, but you can search for plists with keywords in their contents. But that's not all! You can even restrict the results to only hits where your keyword is in the file's key fields, or in its value fields.

My notes of the software's pros and cons follow:

Pros

Cons

You can search and replace using standard, powerful tools. The tool even lets you restrict the search to particular components of the plist (e.g., Dictionary, key, value...) The software lets you view and edit the file as plain XML, and will sync changes you make in the hierarchy view with those you make below. It has a plist browser like PrefSetter, though it does take a bit longer to launch. Once launched, it offers several significant improvements: First, it lets you search not just for the plist filenames, but actually for keys, values, and so on within the set of files! Second, I was relieved to see that in PlistEdit Pro, the delete function in the browser works. (In PrefSetter, it's always grayed out.) Also, the browser actually lets you "reveal" or "launch" the application whose plist you have selected without going to the Finder. Nice! The software has a built-in window for setting and organizing bookmarks, or "favorites," so you can save yourself from having to search a large application library for .plists you edit often. This application is bulletproof-stable: Even during very heavy exercises with hundreds of files or more, where I'm searching the file contents, it has never crashed.

I wish the software would have an option for seeking and opening application info.plist files as well. The interface would be improved by building a search field into the toolbar, especially in the document view. Integrated search would be an improvement for the browser view as well. I would like a preference setting to ask PlistEdit Pro to open the browser view only on launch. In addition, I'd like to be able to define the parameters for the default search paths.

Version as tested: 1.3.

Originally downloaded May 8, 2007. Now here's a widget worth adding to my collection and writing a little about... Photo Drop was first released a couple of weeks ago, but the first few versions didn't get the Reflection effect quite right. With this latest release, it's definitely time to make a recommendation: If you ever need to quickly resize an image, add a background color, do a quick autocolor, do a quick crop job, and then apply one of 10 terrific effects, you'll find Photo Drop an essential widget for your Dashboard.

All you do is drag an image from the Finder or your Desktop, activate Dashboard, and drop it in Photo Drop. From there, you can easily resize and reposition the image, or you can resize the widget and then enlarge or shrink the image. On the back is a selection for effects, backgrounds (including transparent), and for the image output format you desire. If you like, you can have Photo Drop do an image correction and/or add a watermark. Then flip the widget back over and click the "Done" button. Photo Drop instantly displays your new image with two quick choices to copy it to the clipboard or save it to your desktop. Alternatively, you can just drag it from the widget and into whatever application you need it.

A couple of other details about Photo Drop that makes it really useful for professionals are that it displays height and widgth, as well as a grid, as you resize it. So if you need an image of a certain size, you can get there without opening your regular image editor. In addition, you can paste the clipboard into Photo Drop. Finally, you can drag applications or folders to PhotoDrop to extract their icons. I made the accompanying image by

1. Dropping QuickTime onto PhotoDrop,
2. Adding the Aqua background and reflection effect,
3. Resizing the image and widget to my liking and clicking Done.
4. Next, I had PhotoDrop copy to the clipboard,
5. Pasted the clipboard back into PhotoDrop,
6. Changed the background to Black,
7. Had PhotoDrop copy that image and pasted it back again.
8. Next I used the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-4 to make a screen snapshot of the widget on the clipboard,
9. Pasted that image into PhotoDrop,
10. Resized the whole thing to exactly 200 pixels wide,
11. Added a PushPin effect and a transparent background, and then
12. Had PhotoDrop save that image to my Desktop.

Writing it down, that seems like a lot of steps, but I sure couldn't have done it any faster with any other tool I know about. Sweet, simple, and elegant: This is a Dashboard widget at its best, and it does things that, sad to say, other widget frameworks simply can't. But that's OK, you're already using the best one anyway. :-)

Version as tested: 0.5.4.

Originally downloaded 12/11/06, updated 4/29/07. For me, the modest, free WindowDragon software won out over all the other competition in the race to provide the best Window Tricks for my Mac. What the heck does that mean? Quite simply, I wanted the ability to move my application windows from a location other than the titlebar/toolbar, and I wanted to be able to occasionally resize them by dragging from some location other than the lower right-hand corner. That's pretty much all I needed, and that's pretty much all WindowDragon does. It simply does it better than the rest. How better? Glad you asked:

• WindowDragon is the only tool that lets me keep my left mouse button free, to keep the keyboard shortcut simple. You see, as my library of custom keyboard shortcuts has grown, the ability of my tiny brain to remember them all has shrunk. With WindowDragon, I can keep the shortcut to one key, and for me that tiny number is huge! WindowDragon can do this because it lets me use the right-hand mouse button instead of the left, thereby avoiding interfering with all the hundreds of other shortcuts that rely on the left. It definitely takes a little practice to automatically use the right mouse key for a drag function, but once learned, it's a blessing.
• WindowDragon is the only tool of all those I tested that could resize my QuartzClocks ⤴ windows even when their background was set to fully transparent. This is cool because my favorite QuartzClocks clock---the digital one---by default resizes with its background window. But if you make the window transparent, you can't resize it using the little widget in the lower right-hand corner. Ergo, you either live with a huge clock (since you can't change the font size), or you find a Window Trick somewhere. Lucky for me, I found one. :-)


• Because WindowDragon is a haxie, using Unsanity's APE framework, rather than a Cocoa plugin, it can work with older Carbon apps like the Finder, as well as newer Cocoa apps. Though some of the commercial products also can do this, none of the other free ones can.

Now, a major caveat for WindowDragon is that you have to first install the free APE framework. But the APE framework won't run on Leopard (yet), so WindowDragon, unfortunately, does me no good when I'm working on my Leopard build. :-( I haven't decided what I'm going to do about that yet, but it is a bit of a pain for now. Otherwise, I have never experienced any instability or other problems stemming from WindowDragon, and I've really enjoyed having it around... and knowing it didn't cost me a dime! :-)

Here are a few notes I took while testing WindowDragon.

Pros	Cons
Free! Easy to set up. Has both functions I'm mainly interested in: resizing and moving. Can assign any keyboard shortcuts, including the option to use a right-hand mouseclick with only one key. Can disable WindowDragon in any application. Nice built-in help file.	No additional features. Can't customize features for each application. No visual cues. Requires Unsanity's APE framework... not compatible with Leopard (yet).

Version as tested: 1.1b2.

Originally downloaded 10/8/06. The world and wonder of Cocoa applications continues to grow for me... I happened upon this $29 bundle of extensions from a Czech programmer today and of course simply had to download it, given the promise of its premise. (Did I really say that?) Such applications have been around since the dawn of Mac OS X, having been ported from their NeXT roots, and this one was updated for Tiger in 2005. Here's a brief list of the tricks it adds to Cocoa apps:

• the main menu can be popped up anyplace, anytime;
• any application menu or submenu can be torn-off and floated;
• windows can be resized by dragging any edge;
• windows can be moved by dragging from any point inside its frame (not just by its title);
• entering URL links into RTF(D) documents in TextEdit;
• saving any formatted text into HTML;
• even keeping a watch over the current keyboard and reporting when it changes;

Unfortunately, it's not free, and will only work in all Cocoa apps if you register it... but it's definitely worth a try!

Update 4/28/07. I finally broke down and bought a license for OCSH (as it's affectionately known by its developer) a couple of months ago, and it's become such an essential part of my system setup I recently installed it on my Leopard build. That said, OCSH is definitely not for the faint of heart. It's a geek's tool---made by a geek for geeks.

OCSmart Hacks is frustratingly buggy, probably because it hasn't been updated since shortly after Tiger was released in 2005. Nevertheless, it has a few killer features that I finally felt worthwhile to pay for. The software is a Cocoa InputManager application that adds several capabilities to any Cocoa apps it's running in. Most significantly:

1. Ability to invoke the main menu with a keystroke anywhere on your monitor,
2. Ability to "tear off" any menu or submenu, a very handy feature that saves time in reaching menu functions buried deep in an application hierarchy, and
3. Ability to customize these features for each application, including turning itself off.

And the good news is that it works in Leopard just about the same as it does in Tiger. Before buying OCSH, you can demo all of its features by invoking them in the OCSmart Hacks standalone application.

OCSH offers many other features, plus numerous "hidden" ones for really advanced hackers, but several of them are now obsolete---for example, its HTML conversion tool and its ability to add hyperlinks in apps like TextEdit. One, which can be annoying if you don't turn it off, reflects the author's annoyance at Mac OS X's default behavior of opening a blank document when an application launches. Though this can be annoying, developers have largely overridden it on a case-by-case basis, so that you can turn the feature on and off within the app's preferences.

When I say that OCSH is buggy, I mean that it's caused conflicts with a dozen or so applications during the time I've used it. When this happens, you can disable OCSH within the application itself---if it's able to fully launch. If it crashes, and you determine OCSH is the cause, you can add a key to the app's preferences file that will disable OCSH (see the very thorough OCSH documentation for the instructions). The good news is that the cause of this bug may soon be history: The OCSH developer is currently testing an update that fixes a problem that could be causing the conflict. This new version will be available on the OCSH website as soon as testing is completed.

"Tear-Off" menus, by the way, are incredibly cool and useful. They were apparently a standard part of the NeXTStep user interface, and were passed along to OS X by way of its code genes. Apple has done nothing to advertise their existence, and only because a couple of apps like OCSH have enabled them do I even know they are possible. The cool thing---and a critical distinction between this and the "pop-up" main menu---is that tear-off menus are persistent. OCSH remembers which menus should be torn off for each app, and where you want them located on the screen. In addition, you can use a contextual menu command to tell any given menu that it should float above all other windows, or that it should once again "mix" with its other brothers and sisters. The main utility of "tear-off" menus is in providing quick access to deeply nested functions that otherwise require navigating through several hierarchical menus to reach. I use them in applications that don't present their main menu at all, because I've turned it off. A good example of this for me is Edgies ⤴, but I also use this in WriteRoom ⤴.

In my tests and use, I've found OCSH to be superior and more reliable for "popup menus" and "tear-off menus" than two freeware apps that are probably better known. I had used DejaMenu a lot before discovering OCSH... or rather, I had tried to use it. In my experience, DejaMenu simply doesn't work in many of the situations where I really need it---including Edgies, QuartzClocks ⤴, DropCopy, and other apps where I don't need a menubar. A lot of Mac users need a popup menu feature because they use multiple monitors, and don't want to have to navigate back to the "home" monitor to use the menu. I haven't tested OCSH under those conditions, but I assume it would work.

For "tear-off" menus, the only other tool I'm aware of is the open-source StepMenus. Again, I had tried to use StepMenus for its tear-off chops many times, but it's frustratingly buggy, and quite often fails to obey your instructions to stay quiet in apps from which you've excluded it. StepMenus is also fairly old code and doesn't appear to be "cared for" any longer. Still, if you want to get a flavor for what "tear-off" menus can do, StepMenus is a good place to start.

Here are a few other notes I've made on OCSH during testing and use.

Pros

Cons

Many more native Cocoa features besides moving and resizing windows. Hold Ctrl-Shift and you can drag any window edge to resize a window. This is more flexible than most other hacks, which only resize in one direction. To move a window by its content area, hold Cmd key and drag with right mouse button. (these shortcuts are configurable in OCSmartHacks prefs) Tear-off menus are cool and can be customized to each app as needed. Cmd-Option-Click brings up the app's main menu. This works reliably, whereas DejaMenu doesn't, for apps that don't ordinarily have a main menu showing (i.e., they don't appear in the Dock) Can be disabled selectively for individual apps, though you have to disable all functions if you do. Very good in-app documentation, even though it's a little out of date.

Pasted a bulleted list from DevonThink and saved as HTML... OCSH just made each bullet a <P> tag and preserved the bullet character. Not what I want. OCSH has an advanced method for power users to write their own parsing rules, but the testing and time required to do that seems pointless, since Apple's TextEdit now parses RTF to HTML beautifully. OCSH can't resize windows like QuartzClocks that have a transparent frame. Works only in Cocoa apps through InputManager. OCSH is not being actively developed. As a result, it has conflicts with a fair number of applications, so I've had to disable it more than I expected. The main menu trick sometimes experiences conflicts with Quicksilver. It's the most expensive tool of its kind, and in fact lives in a software universe where most Cocoa plugins are freeware or open source. Desperately needs a new icon, and could also use a better name. :-)

Version as tested: 2.0.

This is the second mouse add-on I've seen lately that lets you resize windows by dragging in them. MondoMouse installs a preference pane that lets you customize this behavior and also adds features for controlling the mouse's "window focus" (which window is receiving input) and for moving and resizing windows without giving them "focus". Definitely a super-user add-on, but well worth checking out as long as you think $14.95 is reasonable if you decide to keep it.

Update 4/28/07. The comments I made about Zooom! ⤴ apply to MondoMouse as well. Even though I'm rejecting it for my personal use, however, I would very likely pay the additional $5 for MondoMouse instead of Zooom!, simply because I prefer its "float" style of window interaction rather than Zooom!'s click style.

A quick aside here, since that last statement makes no sense without a little context. In the world of what I call "Window Tricks" software, there are two basic styles of causing windows to resize and move with your mouse: One is like Zooom!, where you drag or resize a window by invoking a keyboard shortcut while you click and drag with your mouse. The other is used by MondoMouse and at least one other that I know of, where you drag or resize merely by invoking the shortcut and then dragging with your mouse---no mouse click is needed. It certainly seems more like "magic" to me, the I confess to being a sucker for this cool factor.

The only concern I have about MondoMouse is that in an earlier version I observed a couple incidents of runaway CPU usage, which caused me to force quit the software. I haven't fully tested the latest version against that problem, so you should do so if you consider purchasing MondoMouse. It's also the case that MondoMouse lacks some features that Zooom! has, and if those are important to you, it will be easy to select the less expensive---but equally capable---Zooom! product. Below is a summary of the notes I took on MondoMouse.

Pros	Cons
Nice visuals. Functions without clicking and holding the mouse... you just move the mouse. Provides an optional floating bezel that gives basic info about the window you're hovering over. Can be deactivated selectively for individual apps. Uses Sparkle for updates!	In some sessions, I found MondoMouse causing runaway "System Events" now and then and had to kill them in Activity Monitor. Has same limitation on window actions that Zooom! ⤴ does. Relatively expensive. I wish I could customize the color of the bounding box that appears when MondoMouse is activated. Shortcut definitions can't use alternative mouse buttons.

Version as tested: 1.3.1

Originally downloaded 11/5/06. Zooom is about the third software package I've downloaded in recent months that adds the ability to move and resize application windows in more ways than the default Mac OS X behaviors. I suspect this is being driven by the needs of Windows users who've switched to the Mac and long for the comfort of their usual window behaviors. Zooom adds a preference pane to control its actions, which are triggered by keyboard shortcuts. One gets a positive impression of the software right off the bat thanks to an interactive demo that launches as soon as you install Zooom. Based on that, I'd say Zooom is pretty darn easy to use, but I'll play with it and its fellow utilities for awhile before picking one. Zooom, unfortunately, isn't free, but at $8, it's not unreasonably priced. (Update 4/28/07: Zooom is now $10.)

Update 4/28/07. Zooom! is really cool, but I've decided to chuck it for myself, as well as its close competitor, MondoMouse, in favor of some freeware that takes care of the main functionality and does so more satisfactorily for me. That said, Zooom! is a fine product that I can recommend without reservation. It has a broader range of functions than the more expensive MondoMouse ⤴, and its developer is responsive to suggestions, actively seeking to improve the product. Zooom! is also the only one of these tools that extends its powers to the difficult, non-standard Mac OS X products from Microsoft. For control freaks, Zooom!'s new Magnetics feature will be a dream come true. It lets you assign an invisible grid to your monitor, to which you can snap your windows as you move and resize them with Zooom! Unfortunately, you can't snap to the grid by using Mac OS X's built-in move and resize tools. Below is my summary of pros and cons.

Pros

Cons

Good introductory tutorial. Provides "ignore" list so you can deactivate Zooom! in certain apps. Deactivation is fine-grained so you can deactivate only certain Zooom! functions rather than all of them. Provides visual feedback when Zooom! is active, letting you know whether you're resizing or moving a window, though this feature is only marginally helpful. Provides a menu extra so you know Zooom! is active and have ready access to its settings. New "magnetics" feature makes it a "snap" to precisely align windows in a configurable grid. The grid can be set to become visible when you're moving or resizing windows, to make it easy to see where the "snap" lines are. Claims to be the only such tool to work its magic on the very non-standard Microsoft Office Mac OS X apps.

Trial period too short to make a decision. Although the developer was very responsive, he was unable to give me a trial license that could allow me to continue testing Zooom! on my main system. I eventually reinstalled it on a system that had never had Zooom! installed. In addition to the new license, I had tried using various "uninstall" utilities on my original system, as well as various hack techniques I happen to know. :-) Nothing worked. I advised the developer to provide a more "friendly" demo trial scheme... for example, giving users another 2 weeks for each new major version that's released, but as far as I can tell that hasn't happened yet. Can't resize some windows... for example, QuartzClocks digital display when window is transparent. Also can't resize System Preferences windows, for example. Keyboard shortcuts can't utilize the right-hand mouse button, which limits your flexibility in assigning simple shortcuts. Magnetics feature only works when you move using Zooom!, not when you drag with toolbar.

Version as tested: 1.2.

Downloaded May 17, 2006. (Note: See update from 4/14/07 at the end.) Here's another stab at getting at web content through Spotlight... only unlike the Google Importer tool, which adds Google results to Spotlight's results list, Charlotte runs as a separate, Spotlight-lookalike process. And it's not just a cute menubar item that produces a list of results like Spotlight, either. Charlotte actually has an embedded web browser sporting some of the coolest, core-image-based animation effects you've ever seen. They make Shiira's page-flip animation look positively lame! I want to play with Charlotte a bit more before deciding to keep it around, but it sure has made a big first impression!

Update 6/18/06: Charlotte still has a few bugs... it seems to conflict with the AcidSearch plugin, but then so does the nightly WebKit browser I like to use. But all in all, I like the concept they're going for, which is to provide a consolidated search across several distinct content "buckets" on the web. You can get this effect at Google already, which presents buckets for "Web," "Images," "Groups," "News," "Froogle," and "Maps," thereby letting you reuse your search term in several different contexts. This isn't always that useful, but in Charlotte it's got the potential to be more useful than at Google. Charlotte's "buckets" are "Web," "News," "Images," "Books," "Blogs," and "Developer." At this point, Charlotte's buckets aren't as full as they presumably will be as more plugins are created for it, but it's still quite interesting to switch from, for example, "News," to "Blogs" with the same search term.

Charlotte is indeed a full-fledged web browser, with the basic functionality plus some serious eye candy. If you're a fan of Dashboard's "ripple" effect, rejoice! With Charlotte, you have two different kinds of page loads you can animate, choosing from about 8 different transition effects... some of which I haven't seen before (disintegrate, mod, and copy machine). I miss having a back button between the results list and my navigation from there, although I've found that Charlotte's "Switch View" button serves the same purpose (a sort of "snapback"). Unlike a normal browser, Charlotte has no menubar. Instead, you access "her" through the menu extra or via a keyboard shortcut (Command-Return or Command-Option-Return), which you can customize in the preferences.

Click on image above to see Charlotte in action!

Charlotte also supports auto-suggest, with a customizable timer, but I didn't have any luck getting it to work. You don't have access to your normal bookmarks. Instead, Charlotte assumes your Del.icio.us site is your bookmark repository, and adding a bookmark in Charlotte means adding it to Del.icio.us. That's fine with me, but if you haven't yet discovered the joys of social bookmarking, you might be taken aback by this. One little quirk is that if you have more tabs than will fit in the browser window, there's no way (that I could see) to get to the far-right ones. They're still there, but you have to clean out other tabs to reach them. Still, I'm reviewing this at version 1.01, and it's pretty damn good for a free, newborn software package of this complexity.

All in all, I'll be glad to keep Charlotte in my menubar!

Update 4/14/07. Finally! A new version of Charlotte was released today, and it's even greater than I remembered. I haven't been using it regularly because I was worried the project was abandoned, but this new release gives me hope it's not. Everything I said before is still true about Charlotte, and I thoroughly enjoy using it, even as a full-fledged browser alternative. Now, if more plugins get written for it, Charlotte could be a truly awesome web search platform for Mac users. (Not that they don't already have any... but Charlotte's just so cool!)

Version as tested: 1.1.

Originally downloaded March 4, 2006. Not that disk loading is slow, mind you... but faster is usually better. There are a couple of caveats, which is why I'm trying this out before recommending it. Free is also good.

Update: I installed the software and changed my .dmg files to use it by default when called. Unfortunately, it turned out that FlashMount couldn't handle .dmg files that require a license approval before being mounted. It took me a while to figure out what the problem was, because the symptom was just inaction when I tried to mount some .dmg files. This kind of software certainly doesn't save you any time if you have to open Get Info and change handlers back and forth, or use the "Open with" contextual menu. So, I removed FlashMount and went back to Apple's default DiskImage Mounter tool.

Version as tested: 1.5.

Update 2/14/07. Just goes to show you that it pays to keep an open mind and "never say never." Recently I started seeing quirky behavior in Mounty, the free tool that does the same trick as FlashMount. I had recommended Mounty last fall after finding that it worked great and avoided the problem I had originally noted in FlashMount (see above). So, I thought I'd head back to the FlashMount developer and see if he had any updates... and sure enough, he did... two in fact! By version 1.5.2, FlashMount not only avoids the "EULA screen" problem it had originally, it does Mounty one better by simply accepting the EULA for you! Of course, you need to understand what it's doing, but basically it just saves you a click (I mean, who reads EULA's, anyway? unless they're from Microsoft...) In my quick testing tonight, FlashMount worked great. I followed the readme file's suggestion and turned FlashMount into a background application. This lets FlashMount do its thing without yanking you out of the Finder. More later after I've run with it for a few days...

Update 4/6/07. Yes, indeed! FlashMount works flawlessly in the latest version, handling the EULA interrupt screen flawlessly. I highly recommend this freeware if you want to shave a few seconds off the time it takes to load disk images on your Mac.

Version as tested: 1.5.2.

Originally downloaded March 28, 2007. I've been using AppHack off and on for 2 years now, since its initial release in February 2005, and it's always amazed me it can do so much. Now that I'm actually starting to hack my own Mac software, I expect it'll come in even handier. The developer released an upgrade to AppHack last week, and I'm taking the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with it.

Besides opening up applications and peeking around, AppHack can also perform some theming duties... for example, it can replace icon sets. And here's a developer who clearly doesn't mind having his own medicine eaten: AppHack is distributed not only as freeware, but as open-source freeware, so you can take a look at its code to see how it does what it does. Great stuff... highly recommended for your inner (or even outer) geek!

Version as tested: 1.1.

Originally downloaded March 7, 2007. Ahhh... now here's a little tool that claims to do what I've often wondered was possible... I use a great piece of freeware called MemoryStick, which keeps track of how much of my RAM is being actively used, how much is inactively used, how much is hard-wired used, and how much is freely available. Quite often, I have as much "inactive" memory in play as I do "active" and "wired" memory combined. Is it possible to free up some of that inactive RAM, short of closing some applications down? Usually, the inactive RAM is waiting around for some inactive application to use it again, so I've always thought it might be dangerous to play with it. If I read iFreeMem's writeup correctly, it proposes to play with that inactive RAM somehow. Obviously, I won't spend $8 if it doesn't work, but it's definitely worth a try! (Carefully.)

Update 3/25/07. You know, this little utility actually works... and more than that, it's actually useful! Even though my PowerMac has 4Gb of RAM, I am surprised at how often I'm running out of memory... at least, out of free memory. So I put iFreeMem to the test and ran it several times over the course of the 15-day trial. I was so impressed after the first test that I almost went ahead and paid my $8 right then and there. Instead, I was curious to see how repeatable iFreeMem's stunning feat of memory freedom would prove to be.

The results are summarized in the accompanying chart, which shows "before" and "after" data for five tests, focusing on the two components of RAM I was most interested in---Free RAM and Inactive RAM. As you can see, although some tests freed up more free memory than others, in each case I gained a significant amount of free RAM---averaging 900Mb. The change in inactive RAM was also quite variable, but even more dramatic: On average I gained 1.25Gb of RAM after running iFreeMem!

In each case, there would be roughly the same amount of "wired" RAM afterwards and a significant pickup in "active" RAM, which on average climbed 400Mb. Put it all together, and each run of iFreeMem gave me a huge boost in RAM "overhead," so I could continue working without needing to restart, which in the past was the only way to really bring these figures down dramatically. (I've found that logging out and back in isn't nearly as effective, unfortunately.) Note that the screenshots from which the test data is taken were made immediately before running iFreeMem and immediately afterwards. While iFreeMem was running, I didn't open or close any application or document on my Mac.

iFreeMem takes about a minute to run, during which it gobbles up all your free and inactive RAM, which can be a bit disconcerting the first time you do it. Shortly, though, the iFreeMem pie charts shift, and suddenly you're lookin' good again! The small QuickTime movie I've added to the article is speeded up, but gives you a good idea of how iFreeMem looks when it's doing its thing.

This software has several other tricks besides this one, and the author is very careful to explain the minuses as well as the pluses to this memory "defrag" process. All I can say is, if you have 8 bucks and a need to stretch your RAM time, go get yourself a copy of this little miracle. So far, I've seen nothing in the course of 3 weeks or so using it that is in the least bit alarming. (I do always close large open documents and applications like iPhoto that keep your work in memory first, just in case.)

Pros

Cons

Quickly and (apparently) efficiently frees up large chunks of your "inactive" memory. Provides useful information about what to expect as it works. Includes additional tools for monitoring your RAM usage, with the ability to keep logs of the data. Also provides a benchmarking tool so you can get detailed data on how efficiently your system is allocating memory. The performance "hit" to existing active applications after an optimization was minimal, in my experience. It's great that you can run iFreeMem safely without having to close any of your active applications down. However, if you're using something like iPhoto or iTunes, which keep a lot of data stored in RAM until you close them, I'd advise closing them before doing an optimization. In fact, I closed all documents that hadn't been saved in apps like Photoshop.

If you use MemoryStick (as I do) to monitor your RAM usage, you can expect to hear those horrible sounds that it emits when your system starts paging and creating virtual memory (swap) files. That's because iFreeMem first tends to use up all of your free RAM in order to free up your inactive RAM. As the software warns, you might see somewhat sluggish performance of existing apps briefly after an optimization.

Version as tested: 1.1.1.

Originally downloaded July 4, 2006. Hard to imagine... but think dashboard widgets.  You know how they flip around to let you access preferences on the back?  Well, imagine that the back of every window of Cocoa apps were a blank page that you could write on.  Graffiti lets you flip the window around, type whatever you like, and then flip back.  You can save the text across sessions, too!  Graffiti is a plugin for the Cocoa SIMBL input manager. 

Update 3/16/07. Well, seeing as how it's been almost 3 years since Graffiti was updated, and that it was left at a state well below 1.0 in its numbering system, it's not surprising perhaps that Graffiti is more of a cool curiosity today than anything you can really use. That said, I'm recommending it because it's a great demonstration of the power of Cocoa to change the abilities of Mac applications built on its framework. The first time you see Graffiti flipping your System Preferences window (or any other one) around, letting you write on its back, your jaw kind of drops. Be prepared to spend a few minutes flipping it back and forth just to see if what you wrote is actually still there. :-) Graffiti comes preset with F7 as the flipper shortcut, but in its preferences, you can set that and several other shortcut actions to whatever you'd like.

I usually keep Graffiti out of production, though, because I was experiencing some system problems related to SIMBL last year, and WebKit in particular isn't fond of SIMBL plugins. In addition, the Graffiti code is apparently not using the correct interface to SIMBL, which you'll discover if you peek into the Console log while running it:

2007-03-24 19:06:45.094 Console[22034] The plugin /Users/llscotts/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/Graffiti.bundle (org.ianhenderson.Graffiti) is using a deprecated interface to SIMBL. Please contact the appropriate developer (not the SIMBL author) and refer them to http://culater.net/wiki/moin.cgi/CocoaReverseEngineering

Still, there's nothing to be afraid of in Graffiti... it's a simple parlor trick that's too cool to ignore. And when I whipped Graffiti out of hiding tonight and put it back in the SIMBL plugins folder, it worked like a charm. Keep this one around to be reminded of the power of Cocoa InputManagers, and revive it now and then to show a Windows skeptic a little something extra you can do with the Mac... if you want to!

Here are a few notes I took on Graffiti:

Pros

Cons

Very cool concept. Great trick to show your friends... particularly the Windows ones. Could use this to hide things on the back of windows. It's open-source, so you could peek at the code if you're geek enough. :-)

Not very practical. I had trouble with system stability when Graffiti was running... as I have had with several other SIMBL plugins. The WebKit code is especially unforgiving of SIMBL, it seems. It's easy to get your windows messed up if you flip them the wrong way... for example, try this in System Preferences and hit the "See All" button, which still shows even when you flip the window. Suddenly you're down the rabbit hole... :-) Graffiti doesn't maintain text after you shut the app down, though you can save what you wrote out to disk. Not very useful, actually, for anything other than demo purposes.

Version as tested: 0.4.

Originally downloaded 1/6/07. The standard in this category has long been MenuCalendarClock, with its iCal or Entourage flavors. And it's a standard that's pretty hard to beat... especially considering that you can use it for free if you don't need some of its advanced features. Nevertheless, Magical has a couple of things I already like better: Its name (I can never remember the other software's name, to save my soul), and its ability to let users tear calendars off the menubar. This latter trick is pretty nifty, and there doesn't appear to be a limit in how many calendars you can tear off. Each tear-off has its own little menubar and access to preferences, etc. I think I'll keep it around awhile to see how I like it. Already, there are a few things I'll need from Magical... mainly, the ability to customize the font and color of the menubar text.

Update 3/15/07. Well, that didn't take long, really. The developer of the cool new menubar calendar/clock application MagiCal has been churning out updates at least once a week since January. Some time in February, all of my requirements were met, and I've actually been using MagiCal instead of MenuCalendarClock (always hated that name... don't you?). It's still not as powerful or flexible, but actually its signature trick---being able to tear a calendar off the menubar and drag it wherever---beats MCC in some ways. In fact, you can drag as many copies of MagiCal off the menubar as you need to, each set to a different month!

p:After I had pointed out MagiCal's early problem with CPU usage, the developer promptly attended to it, and now MagiCal's a very well-behaved member of my menubar. Its CPU usage is comparable to MCC and to the now-abandoned freeware wClock, which had similar functionality. After all that, I don't absolutely need MagiCal, since I get my time and date from QuartzClocks, but I have found it convenient to grab a monthly calendar from the menubar, making it the fastest way to get there outside of keeping iCal on the desktop all the time (not really PractiCal, I don't guess).

Beware the recent entrant to this space, however... at least for now. MyMenuDate is just bad, weak software at this point, though it does have a nice icon. :-) It costs $5.00 on sale, but isn't nearly as nice and flexible as MagiCal, which costs $0.00.

Version as tested: 1.0.8r2

Originally downloaded February 3, 2007. I recently had to spend umpteen-thousand words with the developer of BetterZip explaining why I thought Zipeg was a better value (being free) given the relatively slow performance of the $20 BetterZip software. That doesn't mean I think Zipeg is the ultimate in handling archive files... it doesn't create archives at all, for one thing. It's also got a java base under its Cocoa framework, which only makes it seem a little clunky... a little un-mac-like. So I saw this announcement for a new version of Springy, and on reading the website thought this could indeed be the "ultimate" tool I'm seeking and would be willing to pay for... plus it's a couple bucks less than BetterZip! Besides archive preview and extraction, Springy includes contextual menu actions and compression tools.

Update 3/14/07. Springy is by far the best Mac OS X utility for previewing, extracting, and creating zip files that I've yet seen. And it was only a year ago that I looked around and found virtually nothing. First came BetterZip, which was buggy and seemed slow. BetterZip got better with new versions, but ultimately I found it was just too slow, and I didn't think it was worth paying for. Then I found Zipeg, a new freeware tool that I still think is terrific, particularly since it's free. However, as I noted above, Zipeg is a bit un-Mac-like and doesn't have a search function.

Then Springy came along just recently, and I was immediately impressed. Springy's interface emulates the Finder, so Mac users will feel immediately at home. It even has the same view options as the Finder! Springy is fast like Zipeg but has the terrific search bar of BetterZip, so already it's better than both.

But to top it all off, Springy has a feature that Context menu fanatics like me really go nuts over: Springy provides a context menu application that's always available when you're browsing the Finder. You just select the files you want to archive and go to Springy's contextual menu item. There, you can select what kind of archive you want to make and boom! (as Steve would say), Springy will make you a zip file and launch Springy for you. Alternatively, you can access the contextual menu to set Springy's preferences or check for updates.

But that's not all! If you select an archive file in the Finder, you'll see its name right below the Springy contextual menu item. Select the name, and wait a moment, and Springy will let you navigate the file tree inside that Zip file... all without opening Springy! If you select a file or folder while browsing the archive, Springy will extract them for you. Springy's preferences window gives you some control over how Springy extracts, and what the contextual menu does.

If you're looking for a zip-file manager and you have a little money to spend, you can't do better today on the Mac than Springy. As you'll see by browsing the table of pros and cons below, it's not perfect (what is?), but it'll surely delight you with its speed and pure Mac OS X elegance.

Pros

Cons

Includes a handy contextual menu. Beautiful interface with a Finder-like browser that includes all the usual Finder window features (Views, options, etc.) Also includes the Finder's excellent browser-like navigation (back/forward). Supports both compression and decompression. Excellent browse/search tools for examining archive contents. File preview is instantaneous, like Zipeg. Excellent Help file. Very flexible set of preferences that let you adjust Springy's behavior in both its application and contextual menu forms. Uses Sparkle framework for updates. Can unpack SIT and RAR files as well as various flavors of ZIP. This is a trick that similar tools, like BetterZip and Zipeg, can't do, and it frees you from reliance on the Stuffit tools. For most kinds of archives, Springy lets you navigate the archive right from within the Finder using its contextual menu. You can navigate through the archive and select just the file you want without ever launching Springy or using its main interface.

The demo version is too restrictive. For example, you can't try Springy out on very large archives in demo mode. It's limited to 50MB or 500 files, so I couldn't test it on my largest archives. You also can't test the contextual menu browse feature with the demo. However, if you really need to try it first, contact the developer and ask... they may be as nice to you as they were to me. It would be nice if you could use the preview pane as you can in the Finder... as long as you feel like you're in the Finder, it seems odd for that to be missing. If Springy won't actually preview files, I'd recommend turning off the preview pane, because it sets up expectations that aren't met. I've encountered a few archive file formats that Zipeg could handle but Springy couldn't.

Version as tested: 1.2.2.